


Nameless Winter Wonder

by BelladonnaInBloom



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/F, Ginny Weasley is a Good Friend, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Lavender Brown Lives, Minor Lavender Brown/Parvati Patil, Neo-Paganism, Post-Hogwarts, Yule
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21866995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BelladonnaInBloom/pseuds/BelladonnaInBloom
Summary: Hermione and Luna have been playing around with paganism for some time now. This December, they decide to take it to the next step and celebrate the Wiccan Sabbat Yule, complete with homemade incense and a seasonal Tarot reading. Luna is right at home making their new traditions, but Hermione isn't so sure she can give up her traditional Christmas so easily.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Luna Lovegood
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Nameless Winter Wonder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NeonTinkerbell](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeonTinkerbell/gifts).



> This was written for witchsweekly's gift exchange (find them on [Tumblr](https://witchsweekly.tumblr.com/)). This gift is for [@neontinkerbell.](https://neontinkerbell.tumblr.com/) Happy holidays!

**December 21st**

The London sky was grey and dim as the evening proceeded into early winter darkness. Without a flake of snow all month, it hardly looked like Christmas outside, and inside… well, it almost looked like Christmas. 

Luna and Hermione had agreed to celebrate Yule this year. It seemed like a logical extension of their recent attempt to get back to more traditional magickal roots. To the surprise of most of her friends, Hermione was on board with the idea of celebrating the Neo-Pagan holiday. As soon as she read up about Yule, Hermione saw the symbolism of the Sabbat as movingly beautiful and complex. Still, she couldn’t completely sacrifice the altogether different beauty that she found in the simplicity of her secular Christmas, whether she was truly celebrating it or not.

Consequently, their flat was now decorated in a bizarre combination of Hermione’s childhood Christmas decorations, spiritual Yule symbols and… whatever some of Luna’s decorations were. And of course, no mistletoe. Nargles, obviously. 

Hermione sat cross-legged on the floor doggedly weaving together smudge sticks of juniper, pine, and rosemary. It was deceptively difficult, at least without magic, the use of which Luna had strictly forbade.

“It’s more effective if you weave your intentions into the bundle with your bare hands,” she had said. 

Well, Hermione didn’t know about that. What she did know was that she had pricked herself about a hundred times with errant pine needles, only to watch numerous bundles fall apart from an overly loose string. 

With a frustrated sigh, Hermione put down her finished bundle and looked up at Luna. 

Luna was placidly decorating the altar, arranging a collection of candles with astute precision. As exasperated as Hermione felt from the last half-hour of minor pine-related calamities, she couldn’t help smiling as she looked at Luna’s calm face. 

Seemingly invested entirely in her own thoughts, Luna stared at her work with the utmost concentration and a peaceful smile playing on her lips. With an alluringly dazed expression, she turned her grey saucer eyes on Hermione. “Are you done with the smudge sticks?” Luna asked. 

“I think so,” Hermione said. “Six are enough, right?”

Luna nodded slowly and Hermione sighed with relief. “That should be enough for everyone on the Sabbat and one to smudge the house before.” Luna smiled and stepped back from the altar. “I think that I’m done as well,” Luna said.

“It looks lovely,” Hermione said and came up to kiss Luna’s cheek. Luna beamed and turned to kiss Hermione on the lips.

“So that’s the smudges and the altar. What’s left on the to-do list?” Hermione said, anxiously scanning the room for her exhaustive holiday planning list. 

With a single finger on her chin, Luna directed Hermione’s gaze back to her. “We have the cleaning and smudging tomorrow and then just the food and Wassail to prep on the solstice afternoon,” Luna said reassuringly. 

Hermione inhaled sharply and put her fingers to her lips. “I forgot about the Wassail. Have you ever made it before?” Hermione asked. 

Luna shook her head no.

“Well, then. Sounds like we need a trial run,” Hermione said with a playful smile. 

“If you like,” Luna said pleasantly. But Hermione was already off, levitating all the ingredients to her - fruit juices, cinnamon sticks, and of course, rum. Whether it was the promise of a spiked holiday beveridge or the bout of well-thought-out party planning before her, Hermione was giddy with holiday excitement. 

***  
Hermione busied herself over the Wassail with a precision fitting of a complex potion. But once the ingredients were set to simmer, her mind wandered back to the holiday at hand. 

A few years ago, if anyone had told Hermione that instead of Christmas, she would soon be celebrating Yule, complete with smudging and coven-like rituals, she would have called them crazy or assumed it could only be because she had lost some horrible bet. But time had changed all of that as time so often tends to do. 

After all, Hermione was reeling with shock along with the rest of the magical world and trying to find her footing post-war. The war had shed light on all the inequalities and prejudices that lived just beneath the deceptively still surface of their society. Consequently, so many facts and figures that Hermione had trusted as gospel now seemed to be on shaky ground. Once seen in that light, Luna’s perspective on things didn’t seem so easily dismissed.

Still, when Luna suggested they celebrate Yule this year, Hermione was skeptical at first. Formal rituals weren’t exactly her cup of tea even now. But Luna’s eyes were shining with such childish enthusiasm, how could she possibly say no... 

Their Sabbat celebration was going to be small. Ginny was coming, of course. Luna had invited Lavender and Parvati as well, which wasn’t exactly the double date that Hermione had always dreamed of, but she was resolved to make the best of it

**December 23rd**

“Ginny, thank you so much for coming,” Luna said warmly as Ginny entered the flat. 

“Oh sure, it sounds like a blast. I’m supposed to apologize for Harry not being able to make it, but I’m not sure how much fun he’d be at a Yule party anyway,” Ginny said jovially. 

Hermione laughed. As much as Harry could pretty much be convinced to go along with anything, deep and spiritual he was not. 

Just then Lavender and Parvati came in the door, holding hands and making eyes at each other as always. 

“Lavender, Parvati, come in,” Hermione said smiling. 

“Thanks for having us over Hermione, we were thinking of celebrating Yule this year as well but we didn’t know anyone else wanted to do it,” Parvati said, taking off her coat and scarf. 

“We’re so glad you three feel the same way that we do. It’s so strange that so many non-Christian witches and wizards celebrate Christmas. It doesn’t mean anything to them. Without religion behind it, Christmas is only a stolen version of a Pagan tradition anyway,” Lavender said vehemently. 

Hermione felt a twinge of hurt at Lavender’s dismissive words towards Christmas. Even if it wasn’t a spiritual or religious holiday for her, it held many cherished memories. She tried to brush her reaction aside. Lavender and Hermione didn’t see eye to eye on most things and the last thing she wanted was to make this celebration about the two of them bickering. 

“Well, I’m still celebrating Christmas,” Ginny said. “Harry and I are going to Mum’s house with the rest of my family. I just thought Yule sounded like a fun addition.” Hermione smiled at her friend. Leave it to Ginny to disagree with someone completely in a way that didn’t make anyone mad. Hermione was going to have to learn that skill.

The girls settled in and brushed away the winter chill with a mug of Wassail and some idle chatter before Luna was ready to get started on the evening’s activities. 

“Lavender, did you still want to lead the group in a Tarot reading for the Sabbat?” Luna asked. 

Lavender broke into a giddy smile and she nodded her head vigorously. Hermione rolled her eyes. Lavender might not be the giggling school girl that she once was, but some things never change. 

Parvati squeezed Lavender’s hand under the table and smiled reassuringly with just as much excitement as Lavender herself was displaying. Reaching into her enormous purse, Lavender handed out a Tarot deck to each of them.

Lavender began her spiel to explain the spread, “Because Yule is a time of darkness, it is a time for introspection to prepare for the rebirth of the light. For this reason, it is the perfect time to let go of what is not serving you and intentionally embracing what is…”

Lavender was in her element and Parvati was listening with rapt attention. Luna’s face was inscrutable as always but she seemed to be enjoying it. Ginny and Hermione were a bit more nonplussed at the whole endeavor and they exchanged a small, side-eyed glance. Ginny, however, tended to be a bit of a better sport about these kinds of things. She shrugged and went on her way, placing her cards and talking about them with what appeared to be a genuine interest. 

Hermione, on the other hand, was having a hard time. No matter how she had softened her viewpoints over the years, divination still ruffled her feathers the same way it did back in Trelawney’s soporific tower.

Hermione shuffled her cards absently, stuck in her mind as memories of Divination seeped in unbidden. Lavender was walking around the table, advising on everyone’s spreads. 

“Oh, the Page of Swords,” she said while peering over Luna’s shoulder. “How interesting. The appearance of the Page in that position suggests that someone with a curious and sharp mind is playing a large role in your life.”

“I wonder who that might be?” Ginny nudged Hermione playfully. “No way to tell, I suppose. That’s just the mystery of the craft,” she said in a silly mystical voice and laughed. 

Hermione laughed along and tried her best to feign pleasant nodding as Lavender continued to talk. This is exactly what she didn’t trust about divination. Unless you were reading with a complete stranger, they would know enough about your life to make the cards say something that made sense. She huffed inwardly and tried to talk herself into it. “Tarot doesn’t have to be about mystical predictions, it’s a tool to investigate your emotions. It’s a tool to investigate your emotions. It’s. A. Tool.” she asserted emphatically in her thoughts. 

Without paying much attention, Hermione pulled enough cards to fill the spread. The Empress was staring up at her from the first spot. She wracked her brain for whatever she could remember from her short-lived career in divination class. 

Parvati was leaning towards her, looking over the same card. “Ooh, the Empress. That’s one of my favorite cards.”

“Really? Why?” Hermione asked. 

“Because it’s all about instinct over thought. It’s about getting back to the sensual, to follow pleasure and what resonates with you on a soul level,” she said with wonder in her eyes. “And that’s just what we’re doing in getting back to Yule.”

Lavender wandered closer and laid her hand over Parvati’s. “So I’d say you’re already on track Hermione,” Lavender said encouragingly, leaning over her shoulder to talk about the other cards in front of her. 

Hermione furrowed her brow. She was enjoying Yule well enough. But was it really following her pleasure? She wasn’t so sure. It was just an experiment. She was just dipping her toe in the Pagan pool to see if it felt right. The whole reason she was celebrating Yule was that she didn’t know what following her pleasure really looked like anymore. 

She sighed to herself. Christmas never made her think about her emotions. But for that matter, Christmas never had Lavender Brown leaning over her shoulder talking about the symbolism of wheat before either. But here she was.

A few eye rolls and a well-bitten tongue later, Hermione had made it through. She decided that she wouldn’t think too hard about her Tarot reading, at least not now. Now was the part of the night she was actually excited for: the Yule Log ritual.

They all stood in a circle and Luna began leading as an informal high priestess. She poured into their burner a small amount of their homemade incense blend for Yule: Frankincense, Myrrh, and Cinnamon. She then proceeded to light both the incense and the log itself and joined the circle. 

Hermione looked at Luna with swelling pride as she began to speak. Even Lavender and Parvati’s excited, cutesy shared glances couldn’t distract her. 

“We come together as the wheel has turned once more  
The earth has resumed her slumber  
And the plants curl into her to shelter from the cold  
Yet tonight, the darkest of them all, we celebrate the light  
And the sun who lies waiting for his return,  
We light this fire to welcome back the sun  
Welcome back warmth,  
Welcome back light,  
Welcome back life,” Luna said. 

Luna then proceeded around the circle, lighting each woman’s candle from her own. 

They too began to speak…

“We say goodbye to darkness and the shadows that shall fade,  
as the sun returns to light our ways.  
Warm the earth.  
Warm the ground.  
Warm the sky.  
Warm our hearts.  
Welcome back, sun.”

There was a buzz of the women’s words mingling in the air that Hermione could feel on her skin, tingling softly like peppermint. 

“Now, I ask you all to sit and meditate on the turning of the season,” Luna said.

Everyone else closed their eyes, but Hermione looked at Luna. The orange glow of her candle lit up her pale hair and face as if she had become part of the flames herself. Even if Hermione did miss Christmas a little, only Yule found a Luna mesmerized and made mesmerizing by the light of a ritual flame. 

**December 24th**  
On the following night, Hermione stepped onto their fire escape to watch the season’s first snow fall over the city. It was quiet and a crisp, silver-white everywhere that you looked. There was peace here, a gorgeous, salubrious peace. It felt just like Christmas Eve ought to feel, Hermione thought. Or... the day after Yule, whatever you might call that. 

“Hermione,” Luna called from within the warm living room.

“Coming,” Hermione said with a final sigh of Christmas wonder. 

When she climbed back into the apartment, a small change had taken place, or rather a series of small changes. The candles and herbs and whatnot from Yule still remained. But in addition, strings of multi-colored Christmas lights hung on the walls, just like Hermione remembered from her parents’ house. Crackers just ready for the pulling sat on the table and a small tree sat near the couch, with ornaments and beads beside it to be hung with care. 

“Luna,” Hermione said breathlessly, staring at the room in wonder. “When did you do all of this?”

“I conjured most of it throughout today and some of it just now while you were out on the balcony,” Luna said happily.

“But I thought we weren’t celebrating Christmas this year,” Hermione said.

“We weren’t. But I saw that you missed it. There was just the slightest twinge of it in your eyes, although you tried very gallantly to hide it. Christmas means something to you that Yule doesn’t, not yet or maybe not ever. I would never want to deny something like that to you, Hermione,” Luna said, putting her arm around Hermione’s waist. 

“Oh, Luna,” Hermione paused, deeply touched. “I don’t know what to say.”

“I believe you traditionally say, ‘Happy Christmas’,” Luna said. 

Hermione laughed softly. “Happy Christmas, Luna,”

“Happy Christmas, Hermione,” Luna said, pulling her over to the tree. 

With the snow whipping outside the windows, the two young women hung ornament after ornament on their small holiday tree to celebrate their Yule, their Christmas, their nameless winter wonder.


End file.
